“I want them to pay for it,” were the words of an anguished Crystal Kissoon, after she learned that the pirate attack which left her son, Justin Kissoon, and several others lost at sea might be linked to criminals who committed murders on Thursday.
“It’s hurtful and I want them to pay for it because these families didn’t have to go through all of these grieve for it and because of that they should pay for it,” she said.
Kissoon was part of a dwindling crowd that returned to the Orange Valley fishing depot, as the searches for three men still missing - Kissoon, 19, Alex Sooknanan, 18 and Jason “Trevor” Baptiste, 30 - continued.
Other families were preparing funeral arrangements for the other men whose bodies were found - Kissoon’s 21-year-old cousin Brandon “Curry” Kissoon, Anand Rampersad, 39, Shiva “Aries” Ramdeo, 27, and Leslie De Boulet.
Kissoon held out hope that her son would be found alive, but members of the search teams told Guardian Media that there were getting more and more deflated with each day they failed to discover the men at sea.
Prayer, hope, and anger became a prevailing theme throughout the day.
President of the Carli Bay Fishing Association Imtiaz Khan also expressed anger at the government, especially as the fishermen had raised concerns about piracy recently.
“If these guys were involved in stuff, that should have been dealt with earlier. We didn’t have to loss seven lives to hear a news like this. We were victims last year November, now we are victims with lives lost. Since November now we never heard from the Minister of National Security neither the Minister of Agriculture so what we asking is that they contact us because we want to talk because fisherman don’t want to fish,” said Khan.
Angela Gouveia and Angie Jairam of the Couva Business Chamber, also told the Guardian that the fishermen had complained about the lack of security at sea for some time.
The chamber members had visited the fishing depot to learn what additional aid the fishermen needed as the search efforts continued, as did members of the Orange Valley Mosque, who lead an interfaith prayer session at the jetty.
Following the prayer session, Allan ‘Taxi’ Seepersad, Councillor for Felicity/Calcutta/Mc Bean also slammed the lack of an appearance from a central government representative.
“Come down here and send an official and see what is really going on. It is not right to see that we have a government and the government is not seeking and touching the life of the people of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago,” said Seepersad,.
“This is a disaster and difficult time and they should be here sympathising to the family and the community with protection and safety,” he added.
During Thursday’s post-Cabinet press briefing, Minister of National Security Stuart Young confirmed that no minister had gone to the Orange Valley area since the incident, but denied claims that the Coast Guard and aerial support units had failed to support search efforts for the fishermen.